This invention relates to a practice apparatus for baseball pitchers.
Prior to the present invention, many devices existed to help a baseball pitcher practice his pitching into a strike zone which includes or excludes some target gear, such plate, net, a loop, or the like. In actual pitching, however, control of the ball for pin-point accuracy on demand is the ultimate goal of every pitcher. Pitching the ball only over the center of the plate, at the right height will result in more base hits, which is the opposite of what the pitcher wants or intends. A pitcher wants to be able to pitch the ball to the outside edges of the plate, to the inside edges of the plate, or the corners of that area defined as the strike zone, preferable while at the same time keeping the ball low or high depending upon whether he desires to pitch an inside or outside pitch. In this manner, the batter is generally not able to put full and direct force into the ball, thus causing pop flies, grounders, foul balls, and strikes rather than base hits. Hence, a pitcher needs a training device that will give him direct feed back that he can see instantaneously while practicing throwing the ball at different zones.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,937 discloses a portable baseball practice tee or a strike zone indicator device. As a pitching device, a pair of adjustable stanchions are mounted in extenders so that they straddle the base. Indicators such as color bands on the stanchion surfaces provides the high-low range of the strike zone. U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,246 discloses a target device for baseball pitches composed of a target member suspended on a recoilable pole member.